Tina would rather sew up her girl parts with dental floss than go on a second date with a man. She’s been dumped enough to know not to get attached.

But when Dr. Darion Marks comes into her art therapy room to ask a favor for a special patient, Tina recognizes the haunted look he buries beneath his stoic professionalism. So rather than be forced to ditch the handsome doctor after a single night, she decides not to date him at all.

So how exactly DO they end up half-naked in Surgical Suite B?

Dr. Darion has a lot to hide. His baby sister is the only family he has left, and he’s not leaving her treatment to some incompetent hack.

But now he’s breaking every hospital rule imaginable. He lied about his sister so he can manage her care, and now he’s banging the art therapy teacher between patient rounds like a fraternity boy at a keg party.

Nobody believes this can end well, not Tina’s friend Corabelle, who is overcoming a tragic history much like Tina’s, or even pink-haired Jenny, who thinks sex with strangers is good for your metabolism.

But Dr. Darion and Tina have one thing going for them – a fierce passion for each other that just might obliterate all their doubts, and solve all their problems.

Forever Sheltered includes many favorite characters from Forever Innocent and Forever Loved, as well as the much-anticipated wedding of Gavin and Corabelle.

It is a standalone HEA that does not require reading any other parts of the Forever series.

The voice that came from the door was like an icy blast. “Do you have any more personal questions that are completely out of line for your relationship with my patient?”

I whipped around. Dr. Darion stood in the door, glowering like a gargoyle.

“I—I was just asking about a song Cynthia performed for me yesterday.”

His eyes narrowed. I wondered what I possibly saw in him before, because now he was clearly the biggest jerk in the universe.

He snatched my arm and dragged me from the room.

I tried to wrench free as he moved us down the hall. “What is going ON with you?” I asked.

“Hush,” he said.

We turned down a narrow corridor, and he buzzed us through a door with his ID. I had never been in this part of the hospital and tried to figure out where we were. The back side of ICU, maybe.

He shouldered open a door marked Surgical Suite B. The room was dim and empty. Boxes were stacked along one wall, and it had an unused smell to it, stuffy and antiseptic. A pair of gurneys were pushed together next to a line of cabinets.

“What is this about?” I asked, jerking my arm out of his grasp.

“Why were you in Cynthia’s room asking questions?”

“Why are you dragging me through the hospital like a lunatic?”

We were only inches apart, me defiantly on my toes to try to eliminate the advantage of his height.

“You have no business questioning my patients or their family.”

Oh, I wanted to punch him. My hand curled into a fist. “You are an awful man, Darion Marks.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed up, then down, like he had swallowed something nasty. “I’m sorry I dragged you down here,” he said.

I shoved at his chest. “Sorry? You just embarrassed the hell out of me! No telling who saw that.”

I pushed him again. I was really in a fury. “Are you TRYING to get me fired?”

The contact between us sparked, like a match being lit. I forgot why I was mad. He was so freaking close. He wore cologne, just a hint of it. He smelled like heaven. My heart sped up. Crap.

I tried to think how to get out of this. I needed to just walk away. We were alone in a dark room.

Shoot. I could already tell my body was getting ahead of my head. It was calculating distance. Seeing how far I could push this man. How close I could get.

Remembering how long it had been since my last tryst with anybody.

I would have to do the one-and-done with Dr. Darion after all.

I leaned in, just to see what he would do.

Deanna Roy is a passionate advocate for women who have lost babies. She founded PregnancyLoss.Info in 1998 and runs many online and in-person support groups. She is the author of several two-hankie reads, including Forever Innocent, Stella & Dane, and Baby Dust.